sacred subjects. He was, however, generally courted and admired as a gay companion, rather than as a grave one.

CUMBERLAND.

Soon after the arrival of Frederick Prince of Wales in England, Dodington became a favourite, and submitted to the prince's childish horse play, being once rolled up in a blanket, and trundled down stairs; nor was he negligent in paying more solid court, by lending his royal highness money. He was, however, supplanted, I think, by George, afterwards Lord Lyttelton, and again became a courtier and placeman at St. James's; but once more reverted to the prince at the period where his Diary commences. Pope was not the only poet who diverted the town at Dodington's expense. Sir Charles ridiculed him in a well known dialogue with Gyles Earle, and in a ballad entitled "A Grub upon Bubb." Dr. Young, on the contrary, who was patronized by him, has dedicated to him one of his satires on the Love of Fame, as Lyttelton had inscribed one of his cantos on the Progress of Love. Glover, and that prostitute fellow Ralph, were also countenanced by him, as the Diary shows.

Dodington's own wit was very ready. I will mention two instances. Lord Sundon was commissioner of the treasury with him and Winnington, and was very dull. One Thursday, as they left the board, Lord Sundon laughed heartily at something Dodington said; and when gone, Winnington said, "Dodington, you are very ungrateful; you call Sundon stupid and slow,

and yet you see how quick he took what you said." "Oh no," replied Dodington," he was only laughing now at what I said last treasury day." Mr. Trenchard, a neighbour, telling him that though his pinery was expensive, he contrived, by applying the fire and the dung to other purposes, to make it so advantageous that he believed he got a shilling by every pine apple he ate: "Sir," said Dodington, "I would eat them for half the money."

Dodington was married to a Mrs. Behan, whom he was supposed to keep. Though secretly married, he could not own her, as he then did, till the death of Mrs. Strawbridge, to whom he had given a promise of marriage, under the penalty of ten thousand pounds. He had long made love to the latter, and at last, obtaining an assignation, found her lying on a couch. However, he only fell on his knees, and after kissing her hand for some time, cried out, "Oh that I had you in a wood !"-" In a wood !" exclaimed the disappointed dame; "What would you do then? Would you rob me?" It was on this Mrs. Strawbridge that was made the ballad

My Strawberry-my Strawberry
Shall bear away the bell.

To the burthen and tune of which Lord Bath, many years afterwards, wrote his song on "Straw berry-hill."

Dodington had no children. His estate de scended to Lord Temple, whom he hated, as he did Lord Chatham, against whom he wrote pamphlet to expose the expedition to Rochfort.

Nothing was more glaring in Doddington than his want of taste, and the tawdry ostentation in the dress and furniture of his houses. At Eastbury, in the great bed chamber, hung with the richest red velvet, was pasted, on every pannel of the velvet, his crest (a hunting horn supported by an eagle) cut out of gilt leather. The foot cloth round the bed was a mosaic of pocket flaps and cuffs of all his embroidered clothes. At Hammersmith his crest, in pebbles, was stuck into the centre of the turf before his door. The chimney piece was hung with spars resembling icicles round the fire, and a bed of purple, lined with orange, was crowned by a dome of peacock's feathers. The great gallery, to which was a beautiful door of white marble, supported by two columns of lapis lazuli, was not only filled with busts and statues, but had, I think, an inlaid floor of marble; and all this weight was above stairs.

One day, showing it to Edward, Duke of York, Dodington said, "Sir, some persons tell me this room ought to be on the ground." "Be easy, Mr. Dodington, replied the prince, it will soon be there."

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Dodington was very lethargic: falling asleep one day after dinner, with Sir Richard Temple, Lord Cobham, the general, the latter reproached Dodington with his drowsiness; Dodington denied having been asleep, and to prove he had not, offered to repeat all Lord Cobham had been saying. Cobham challenged him to do so. Dodington repeated a story, and Lord Cobham owned

he had been telling it. "Well," said Dodington, "and yet I did not hear a word of it; but I went to sleep because I knew that about this time of day you would tell that story."

HORACE WALPOLE.

THE HON. GERARD HAMILTON.

HAMILTON, who, in the English Parliament got the nickname of Single Speech, spoke well, but not often, in the Irish House of Commons. He had a promptitude of thought, and a rapid flow of well conceived matter, with many other requisites, that only seemed waiting for opportunities to establish his reputation as an orator. He had a striking countenance, a graceful carriage, great selfpossession and personal courage: he was not easily put out of his way by any of those unaccommodating repugnances that men of weaker nerves or more tender consciences might have stumbled at, or been checked by; he could mask the passions that were natural to him, and assume those that did not belong to him: he was indefatigable, meditative, mysterious; his opinions were the result of long labour and much reflection, but he had the art of setting them forth as if they were the starts of ready genius and a quick perception he had as much seeming steadiness as a partisan could stand in need of, and all the real flexibility that could suit his purpose or advance his interest.

CUMBERLAND.